OCCUPY MAY 1ST GENERAL STRIKE

Information

Worldwide, May 1st is traditionally a ‘Workers’ day – a day of Labor Solidarity, and a public holiday. It’s a day to celebrate and march in support of im/migrant rights. In protest against the corruption of the worldwide marketplace, which has led to illegal foreclosures, mass unemployment, low wages, high taxes and a penalization of all those who do not own the ‘99%’ of the world’s resources, and in solidarity with the im/migrant movements of May 1st, we decided to declare May 1st, 2012 a People’s General Strike. Instead of calling upon unionized Labor to make a specific demand (illegal under Taft-Hartley), we are calling upon the people of the world to take this day away from school and the workplace, so that their absence makes their displeasure with this corrupt system be known.

Canada is shutting out Refugees and Families! On May Day 2012 march for Status for All!

For the last six years, No One Is Illegal – Toronto has coordinated a May Day of Action to celebrate and invigorate migrant justice struggles. This year dozens of groups across the City are collaborating in a show of solidarity and strength to mark the May Day of Action. On May 1st, 2012 No One Is Illegal – Toronto will take the streets to push back against the refugee exclusion act (Bill C-31), ensure family reunification in the face of cuts to permanent immigration for parents and grandparents, and support decolonization struggles on Turtle Island. JOIN US! Continue reading →

While American corporate media has focused on yet another stale election between Wall Street-financed candidates, Occupy has been organizing something extraordinary: the first truly nationwide General Strike in U.S. history. Building on the international celebration of May Day, past General Strikes in U.S. cities like Seattle and Oakland, the recent May 1st Day Without An Immigrant demonstrations, the national general strikes in Spain this year, and the on-going student strike in Quebec, the Occupy Movement has called for A Day Without the 99% on May 1st, 2012. This in and of itself is a tremendous victory. For the first time, workers, students, immigrants, and the unemployed from over 115 U.S. cities will stand together for economic justice.

See below the cut for what we believe to be the most comprehensive list of cities where Occupy May Day events are being planned, as well as other resources. Continue reading→

Why are we striking? Why should you strike? And, what do we mean by General Strike?

We are striking to halt the flow of capital, reclaim a tool of resistance, and unify movements against exploitation, repression, and corruption. You should join the movement and strike because: everyone else will be doing it and it’ll be fun and empowering. But more importantly, join because you’ve experienced exploitation, repression, and corruption, and you are aware of their impact around you. Join if you are forced to work and consume; if you want to have a choice for an alternative.

By general strike, we mean everyone from all walks of life halting their role in producing, consuming, and participating within the current system. We invite the precarious workers, unemployed, undocumented, students, and everyone to join.

To the activist, the rebel, the revolutionary, the dreamer. To all who believe in a better world. To those who have found their voice, and those voices that have been met with the sniper’s bullet. To those whose voices have been taken from them. To the peaceful who have been met with brutality and violence, the loving who have been met with hatred. Those who beg for understanding, but are met with ridicule. The free thinkers, the questioners, the dissenters, those who have woken up, and now rattle the chains that have held us down. To the freedom fighters all around the globe.

Raise your fists, break your chains. Shake the world under your feet, and make a noise so loud, that the 1% will cower in their marble halls. For the time of The People has come. Those who consider themselves our masters will find themselves standing in the path of a force the likes of which the world has never seen. For the world relied on our compliance. Our silence, our sheepish ways of living how we are told, for our acceptance of the oppressor’s so called power. But this power was an illusion. Yes the power did not lie in the bank accounts, the pockets of CEOs, the chambers of Ivory towers under lock and key. No. the power has been with The People. The people who survive day to day. The children who cry at night from the pains of hunger, the students who dreams were stolen from them, or sold at prices so high, there is no hope of escape. Those who face violence and weaponry, and defend themselves with nothing but an idea. But it is this idea you see, that makes them strong. An idea cannot be beaten. An idea cannot be gassed, or shot. For it lives in our very souls, and no matter what stands against us, this idea cannot be destroyed.

This Saturday 14th, at 18:00pm GMT (2pm EST) via the Mumble server “tomalplaza.net ” we will be holding a global debate to push forward a shared task: ”Global May: A new beginning?”

The specific topics of debate will be set up by the participants, who will have full freedom and responsibility to share and discuss the topics we feel truly and passionately interested about.

One month before the global Spring 2012, we’ll be having a chance in here to gather, people from all walks of life and corners of the world, and think together on what will be the history we will be writing collectively on May 2012. Trascending the differences in our languages, political and philosophical views and our relationship with the wave of change so far, we will be having an open space where to dialogue to build together the foundings of those other possible worlds we’re craving for.

A broad coalition of organizations, initiatives and networks are mobilizing to diverse days of action in Frankfurt from May 16th to 18th . The central element of the protest choreography is mass blockades on May 18, taking place after the take the squares action on May 17 and before the mass demonstration on May 19. The goal of our action on this day is to effectively disrupt the normal business activities of European Central Bank and other central actors in the financial center in Frankfurt. The parties responsible for the global politics of crisis and impoverishment are to be confronted directly in front of the doors of their decision-making headquarters with imaginative blockades and creative forms of civil disobedience. Our mobilization aims at a mix of mass and decisiveness. Thousands of people with various backgrounds and cultures of protest want to and will participate in the protest actions in arranged affinity groups or spontaneous swarming.Thursday, May 17: Take the SquaresMay 17, the day before the blockades, has the motto “take the squares”. Various spaces in the city center as well as green areas near the bank towers shall – to the extent that authorities prohibit declared activities – be appropriated for cultural-political protest events and asambleas.

We are ONE; connected without leaving the ‘self’ aside we rise up and work together in solidarity to create a mature and advanced human civilization for all !

We declare that we are taking over the planet, to shape our future together in a bottom-up, horizontal and egalitarian way, in order to make real democracy a concrete reality. We are the end of the ‘ancient regime’ owned by the elite.

We are Occupy/Democracy Real Ya!/Take The Square/15O/15M Movements, we are Anonymous, LulzSec, WikiLeaks, OpenLeaks, Yes Man, Avaaz, The Zeitgeist Movements, we are Zapatistas, Water Warriors, Slum Dwellers, Street Traders, Free Culture and information activists, environmentalists, unionists, feminists, anti-war activists, we are the base of political parties, and all other like-minded groups and individuals from every country, who support this cause by engaging in transition strikes going to take place through occupy assemblies around the world on May 15!

We are certain that the current uprising can and need eventually replace the current production, ownership and distribution relationships across the globe with fundamentally egalitarian ways of distributed, peer to peer economies through which we could protect the planet, realise justice and maintain peace.

[OPEN LETTER to LABOUR and TRADE UNION MOVEMENTS, PROGRESSIVE NGOs, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS and other FORCES in EUROPE and AROUND the WORLD]

We, millions of angry, indignant people who came from different walks of life and who stayed silent for a long time against the injustice finally had enough and decided to rise up in 2011. With the energy we got from Tahrir, Puerto Del Sol and Syntagma moments, we stood up against the machine, in order to down with the ruthless elite rule.

Despite effective corporate media blockage on 17 September, Wall Street Occupation and other important actions and occupations in Europe -Paris Bastille & London- and other continents which were led by the outraged ones has proved the potential power of selforganised ordinary people to change the course of history.

On the same date in Wroclaw Poland, there were European trade union movement’s mobilisation to protest the gathering of the EU finance ministers. The power of the elite media could manage to silence these mobilisations for couple of weeks.

The indignant people had united and headed towards the capital cities like Brussels, London and Washington, to peacefully Occupy public spaces on the 15th of October, calling for the day of Global Change, the World rEevolution.

Inspired by the comrades from spain (valencia: http://unidxsporunacausacomun.blogspot.com/), London, US and elsewhere we have felt the need to prepare a positive open latter to work on, discuss, adopt, and declare towards labour and social justice activists; considering the general strike wave, planed global strikes, 1M, 15M, and other global and regional actions and gatherings. We hope such communication would clarifies our unconditional support to working people, union members as well as our obvious different positions and contribute to the overall widening of participation to these mobilisations, and strengthen solidarity among various movements.

Dear fellow workers, comrades,

We are ordinary people. We are outraged, like you. We are called Indigrandos and/or Occupy Movement across the World, describing those who stand at the edge or outside of the disastrous global system.

We are sometimes highly educated, mostly working precariously, unemployed, homeless people who have risen up in 2011 globally; not only to defend the rights of people like us but also for all the others, the 99% who has worse or relatively better conditions than ourselves, as well as for the planet.

We do not claim to represent others, or even each other. We just choose to struggle not only for us but also for the others who can’t do that at the moment.